"What Water?"

A film crew was sent to the middle of the Pacific Ocean to interview Mr. Fish.  Finding him 2 miles beneath the surface, they placed a microphone around his neck, and began the interview. 

"Well, Mr. Fish, first things first," began the TV reporter. "What do you think of all this water around you?"  A puzzled look came upon Mr. Fish's face. 

"What water?" he responded.   

"In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).   

We live in a universe saturated with the presence of the living God.  A large portion of the human race, however, fails to recognize this, the greatest fact of our life and existence.  Moreover, even those who know God through the Lord Jesus Christ recognize and apprehend Him in precious little measure considering how completely He fills us both within and without.  "The Spirit of God dwelleth in you... Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus" (I Corinthians 3:16; 1:30).  Think of it, God lives in us, we live in God, and nothing changes or can change the spiritual proximity of the One about whom the Apostle Paul understated the truth when he declared, "He is not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27).   

Mr. Fish has nothing on us, does he?  He no more misses the physical environment in which he lives than we often miss the spiritual reality of our life and being.  An infinite, almighty, and eternal God comprises the sea in which we live, as it were.  How is it possible that we fail to know such glory when "in Him we live and move and have our being?"  The Bible's primary answer involves the truth that we presently "walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7).  "We see through a glass darkly" wrote the Paul who knew and experienced more than anyone of God's pervasive reality (I Corinthians 13:12).  Apprehending God thus requires the exercise of faith wherein we choose to believe Truth based not on our limited human senses, but rather upon the Word of God.  Indeed, "sight" may ask, "What water?"  Faith answers, "It's everywhere, even to the degree I'm swimming in it!"      

Of course, we don't always miss the great fact of our existence.  Some moments grace us with blessed experience of God's presence and involvement in our lives.  For those times we give thanks and rejoice in the glory revealed.  Most often, however, the Sea in which we live remains an environment known in the spirit rather than the senses.  For this we also give thanks and rejoice because such limitation grants opportunity to discover the heart of our faithful Lord.  Indeed, when we must trust Him without seeing and sensing Him, we discover "the deep things of God" that might evade us were we not pressed to faith (I Corinthians 2:10).   

Our hearts know His heart in waysapprehended by trust rather than sight.  We shall eventually know how blessed a time was this, that time when God granted opportunity for us to walk (or swim!) in Him despite our senses wondering, "What water?"

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence ofthings not seen."(Hebrews 11:1)

"He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible."(Hebrews 11:27)